This player below should work with
iPad, iPhone, newer Apples,
newer 'Droids, Google phone,
Blackberry. Everyone else use the
main player under the skull (below).
Video Webcast Event Notification
presented by {Herd.Tv} and {the Vest Brothers}
Jeb and Friends
The Rongo, Trumansburg, NY
Mar. 16th, 2012: 9:30 pm,
Eastern.
{expected audio source: GeneGene's matrix of mics and board}
UPDATES to the website since the last webcast: Moved the 'new' player to this page (on the right), so now everyone watches the webcast from the same webpage.
Improved the 'How To Use This Website' and 'FAQ' section.
How To Use This Website: {{Once we go live, the video shows up under the buffalo skull, above. If the video is already playing and the chat room is letting you log in, then you do not need to read these notes.}}
1. iPad, iPhone, iPod-touch, Blackberry, Google Phone, Apple computers/laptops (without flash installed) and newer 'droids (without flash installed) should use the new player (on the right side of the screen, above) ... everyone else, go to step 2. For iPad, iPhone, iPod-touch, Blackberry, Google Phone, Apple computers/laptops (without flash installed) and newer 'droids (without flash installed), read the rest of these steps IF you want more info about using chat, otherwise you do not need to read any further. (What defines a 'newer' 'droid? See the FAQ section below for more about 'droids).
2. If we are not live yet, then look at the VERY bottom of this page. You should see a map of the United States. If you do NOT, then jump to step 4 now. Otherwise, you are all set up to watch the show when it starts, plus the chat room should work too. Read step 3 next.
3. The status box, directly above, will tell you when the show is live (plus the text in the status box turns green so that you can tell at a glance when we are live). If the status box says we are live, but you do not see video, then click the (play) button, wait 20 seconds, then if still no video, refresh the page and in a few seconds, you should see video, and - {{You do not need to read the rest of these steps}}.
4. You are at this step because you do not have Flash installed. (If you are using a Mac desktop or Mac laptop, or if you are using a 'Droid, then read step 5 IF you haven't already done so). Install Flash. After you do that, close your browser, and start over - {{You do not need to read the rest of these steps}}.
5. You are at this step because you have a Mac desktop or a Mac laptop, or you have a newer 'Droid. You will be able to watch the video as per step 1 above. But you need to decide ... do you ALSO want the chat room to work? If NO, then you are done with these steps, enjoy the show! If you want to watch video AND use the chat room, then go back to step 4 and follow those instructions. Once you install flash, you will use the main player (above) to watch video (instead of the player above the chatroom).
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FAQ: Q: "Which desktop computers and laptops can view our webcasts?" A: ALL! Every modern browser for desktops and laptops, PC and Mac, supports Flash. Above (below the skull and to the left of chat), if you see a large photo of the band, or a large black screen (that says 'stream not found') or you see a green or blue screen, then you are all set ... no need to do anything except wait until we are live! Otherwise, using your computer's web browser, you can install the latest Flash plugin. You only need to do that once, and you can do it anytime before our next live webcast. (Apple computers and laptops, also see 'special' notes section below).
Q: "Which mobile devices (phones and pads) can view our webcasts?" A: Any device that has a Flash plugin for their web browser, or a flash app installed. Many mobile devices come pre-installed with Flash now. (iPad, iPhone and iPod-touch users, ignore this section and see your own section below). Above (below the skull and to the left of chat), if you see a large photo of the band, or a large black screen (that says 'stream not found') or you see a green or blue screen, then you are all set ... no need to do anything except wait until we are live! Otherwise, using your device's web browser, you can install the latest Flash plugin. You only need to do that once, and you can do it anytime before our next live webcast. (You may need to get the Flash 'app' from your devices 'app' store instead. If you are confused, or get stuck, you can go here to see the exact details of what you need to do to install Flash, depending on what device you have). (Android users, also see 'special' note section, below).
Q: "Can iPhone, iPad and iPod-touch view the webcasts?" A: YES: we have a 'special player' (above, on the right side of the page) that lets you view the webcasts. (your iPhone must be version 3 or higher; iPad 3.2 or higher). (For those of you interested, the reason they will work is because we now also 'broadcast' (encode) our webcasts in a format that works for these devices. This format is called HLS which is entirely different than Flash. iPhone and iPad can't play Flash, so that is why there is a 'special player' for those devices).
Q: "Can my iPhone, iPad and iPod-touch use the chatroom?" A: Probably not. There are some third party 'apps' that may allow iPhone, iPad and iPod-touch to use chat, but we have not tested them (cloudbrowser, skyfire and puffin are apps that 'might' work with chat). The problem is that the chatroom uses 'flash' which is NOT supported by iPad, iPhone and iPod. There are no 'flash' apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod-touch and never will be. The three apps mentioned above are not 'flash' apps per se', but rather, proxy browsers that re-render flash into HLS ... if you get one of them to work with chat (cloudbrowser, skyfire or puffin) would you please let me know?? It would be greatly appreciated, as I simply have not had time yet to test those apps yet.
Q: "Do I really have to install Flash on my Apple computer or laptop?" A: If you are running OS10.6+, then you do not need Flash in order to watch the video webcasts, but you DO need it to chat. However, if you are running OS10.5 or earlier, then you need to install the latest Flash plugin in order to both view the webcast, and to chat. (For those interested, this is because in order to play video without Flash, you need Quicktime X, and that comes bundled with OS10.6+).
Q: "What do I need to know about using my Android for video and chat?" A: VIDEO: If you have a 'flash player' app installed on your 'droid, then you can view the video on this webpage, and use the chatroom. If you do not have a 'flash' app on your 'droid, you still might be able to view the video using the 'no-flash' player (above, on the right side of the page), as long as your 'droid is model 3+ (model 2.2+ with the 'diceplayer' app installed will also work). CHATROOM: if you want to use the chatroom with a 'droid (any version), then you DO need to install the 'flash' app. (You may need to go to the 'Droid 'app' store to find a 'flash player' app if that link doesn't work for you.)
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Notes for Geeks: Q: "I am still not confused, rainboy. " A: Yet ;-)
ok, Ok, OK, OHKAY ;-) ... here is everything else that I learned recently during my hours of re-writing our webcasting code from scratch, and doing all the research that lead to the 'braindump' presented to you above: Once VLC player 1.2 is released, it will also support HLS streaming (like Apple devices do). Also, Quicktime 10+ might eventually be ported over to other OS' (right now it is just for Apple). When we get to the point that there is an HLS plugin/app for most devices, then we might retire Flash/RTMP altogether, and use just HLS, which is a better way to stream since it has less overhead and uses less bandwidth. This should be no surprise since Apple invented HLS ;-) ... indeed, HLS was one of the very last things that Steve Jobs 'gifted' us (RIP). He did not like Flash/RTMP delivery, and refused to support it on the Apple mobile devices, because he thought it inefficient. And really, he is right. Flash/RTMP might very well fade away eventually. When that time comes, there are already other kids on the block to compete with Apple HLS, such as WebM. WebM is a royalty free, openly available alternative to Apple's HLS. WebM uses a VP8 video codec and a Vorbis audio codec encoded into a profile of Matroska trasport stream on an HTTP transport protocol. (HLS' video codec is H.264, it's audio codec is AAC, encoded into a MPEG-2 transport stream on an HTTP transport protocol). Other observations: HTML5 has arrived and it's video tag can present any transport protocol/encoding ('src') to the browser, but it is up to the browser to decode and present the content. So, while Safari will support HSL on HTTP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (also called H.264/MPEG-4 part-10) on RTP and other delivery methods, it does not support WebM. Firefox, Opera and Chrome, on the other hand, support WebM but neither of the two h.264 delivery methods. And for once in an long time, IE is looking pretty good in that it will support both WebM and h.264 (but not the HLS version of h.264 since that is Apple's baby). Poor Adobe Flash. There is (so far) no support natively for it in any browser without loading a flash plugin. That bodes badly for Flash. Indeed, Adobe, seeing the writing on the wall, has added delivery support for HLS (but only if you use HTML5, the new video tag, and Apple's Safari. It's own Flash player still only supports streaming the RTMP protocol). And if you are still with me, youtube is slowly converting everything at it's site to both WebM and h.264 (although not HLS h.264, but rather H.264/MPEG-4 AVC). I can hear your wheels turning: 'But, shouldn't there be a browser video standard for the cool new HTML5 video tag?'...YES there should, and most likely will be, but right now, there is some infighting going on about that, and so it is still 'wait and see'. And the beat goes on!.
If you landed on this website because of a google search, and if my research presented above helped you out, I would really appreciate your feedback :-) Thank-you. (Rand, aka 'rainboy').
(this page is very much a work in progress, and is gonna get cleaned up. Below are lose ends that need to be categorized and redone. Patience, grasshoppah!
The video should automatically fill up most, if not all, of the black space. But, if it is really tiny, then "right click" on it and click the "stretching" button. There are 4 stretch "modes" so keep doing it until when you "right click" it says "stretching is uniform". Stop there, that is generally the one you want to use. (Or play with it until you get it like you want it).
If you want to zoom in (make the video even bigger) then use your browser's View-Zoom menu item ... that allows you to increase the video size and still use chat. There is also a full screen button at bottom right of the video. It will completely fill up your monitor and you won't be able to see chat at all.
You can "float" (undock) the chat room with the 'detach chatroom' button, below the chat window. This is useful for those with two computer monitors so you can go full screen with the video, and move the chat off to the side (onto another monitor).
Chatroom users: You can mute the sounds that come from your chatroom session with the 'mute speaker' button, below the chat window.
Wishlist item: make the chat-room work on portable devices like 'droid and iphones.
Generally, we archive the webcasts at our youtube station. You can subscribe to it (and receive email notification when they are ready).
Coming very soon: change the above "our youtube station" link so that it accesses a menu of ALL DtB related youtube stations, and allow you to subscribe to any of them, not just ours.
If you have any ideas or suggestions or you have problems that you can't figure out, let us know in chat, or contact us. Hope you enjoy our new and improved webcasting system!
Below is an archive of a previous webcast from our youtube station: enjoy!
Description: Donna the Buffalo: 2-11-2011, complete show (2.5 hrs long)
(play) button, wait 20 seconds, then if still no video, refresh the page